Page 106 of Pucking Good Girl

“So that’s why they chose you, right?”

The head scout explains. “Yeah, that was the factor that gave us the final push toward offering a contract to your brother. But what we didn’t know until Becker told us is that Pettersen wanted to end his career in his native Norway. He’s thirty-four and his family just welcomed a baby. His fourth. He and his wife were keen on raising this child closer to their own parents. His contract was up for renewal, and the only reason why he was going to sign with us for another year is that he didn’t want to leave the team with a significant weakness.”

That’s commendable. “Pettersen is your captain, right? I can’t say that I don’t understand his position.”

“Once we knew that he really wanted to be traded, all it took was a phone call to him and his agent. We already knew that he had a few offers from Norwegian teams. He wasn’t considering any of them purely out of loyalty to our franchise. So with Pettersen traded back to Norway, we needed two wingers. And you were the obvious choice, Macklin.”

The other scout chimes in. “We’ve already seen the perfect chemistry between you and Becker on the ice. And trading Pettersen to sign two entry level contracts is going to free a chunk of change from the salary cap that we can use to strengthen our defense.”

“Besides,” Dad concludes. “The fact that neither you nor Becks entered the draft doesn’t cost the team a draft pick. It’s a win-win situation.”

It really is.

After more handshakes and congratulations, and after saying our goodbyes to the Seattle scouts, Dad leaves us to our evening plans.

“I have a flight to catch. I’m stopping the night in Denver to see one of my clients tomorrow morning, and then I’ll be headed home, hopefully just in time to take your mother out to dinner.”

“Hug Mom for us, Dad,” I say. “We miss her.”

He squeezes my shoulder. “She misses you too. We know your schedule during spring break doesn’t make it easy to come home, so we were thinking about coming here to have some family time. Your sister is going to be on break from school too, so we can all be together.”

“Sounds awesome,” I agree.

“Besides,” Dad adds with a smile. “If we come here, we’ll hopefully get to meet this girl of yours. Your sister says she’s a local?”

I should have known. There are no secrets between Mom and our little sis. But it hits me that’s why I never mentioned Talia to either of them. I didn’t want to say something that could embarrass Talia if she ended up choosing Becks.

If Sis knows, it can only mean that Becks told her. I look at my brother with a silent question in my eyes. Did he tell her that we’re both dating Talia?

I have my answer when Dad adds. “Whichever of you she’s dating, we want to meet her. Especially if in two weeks’ time she’s still with both of you and she hasn’t committed first degree murder.”

He winks at us before getting into the cab that’s waiting for him outside the arena.

“Huh,” I muse once the taxi drives off. “He didn’t seem to be too shocked that we’re both dating the same woman.”

Becks chuckles. “Are you surprised? You and I have very different personalities, but when it counts, we’ve always wanted the same things.”

“Fuck, I think you’re right.”

“Mack, can I ride with you? I texted Talia earlier to tell her that we’d be a lot longer than expected and got Vaughn to give her my car keys so she could drive it home.”

“You got it.”

There’s a beat of silence as we walk to my car. “Hey, Becks,” I say, unlocking my car. “I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just say it. Thank you for what you did today. But there is one thing that still isn’t clear. How did you know that Pettersen wanted to move back home?”

“By total chance,” my brother says. “You might not know, but since Bridgeport went bankrupt, I had nowhere to do my summer training.”

“I assumed you went home and trained with Dad.”

He shakes his head. “No. I was invited to a private training facility for NHL players who were going to be free agents and weren’t training with their teams. It was up near Seattle. Pettersen dropped by one day to hang with a couple of his friends who were training there. He wanted to show them photos of the new baby. He’s always been one of my favorite players, so I said hello. We started talking about how I wanted to play for Seattle and what a dream it would have been to be his teammate. He told me to get signed this year, or I might never get the chance. He had been talking about retirement, and the Guardians were only offering him one-year contracts because of that. But in reality, he wasn’t ready to hang his skates for good. What he really wanted was to go home, but he wouldn’t do so until the team found a solid replacement for him. I guess they did today.”

He means me, since Pettersen favored the left wing. Now it all makes sense. “You still took a huge risk by turning down the contract unless they signed me too,” I say. “What if they really didn’t want me?”

“Are you insane? They would have been crazy not to want you, Mack. I got the offer purely because they realized that the only advantage in signing me was that Pettersen would get to play left wing.”

I shrug. “But still. You could have gotten to play with your idol, but instead you’re stuck playing with me. Again.”

“I have more than one idol, Mack. And you might have not realized it but you’re at the top of my list.”